The present invention relates generally to eliminate bright spots or hot spots in a digital photograph, and more particularly, to a method of eliminating bright spots or hot spots in a digital photograph using a fluid electronic masking technique.
A digital camera has an image capturing device such as a charge couple device (CCD) to capture an image and to save it to a memory. The exposure step allows the image capture device exposed to the image of the scene to be photographed.
The image capturing device is sensitive to light. If the light reaching the image capturing device is more than necessary, the image capturing device is over-exposed. As a result, a white-out image (a hot spot or a bright spot) is recorded. On the contrary, if the light reaching the scene is insufficient, an under-exposed situation is caused.
To obtain a properly exposed image recorded in the digital camera, the exposure value has to be controlled or adjusted. In many applications such as digital still cameras, digital video cameras, film and print scanners and motion picture transfer systems that convert a light image into a recordable image, overall exposure adjustment and color shift can be achieved. However, to eliminate a hot spot or bright spot occurring only at a local area of the scene to be photographed, one can only reduce the overall exposure value of the entire scene or image. As a result, although the hot spot or bright spot may be eliminated, a clear picture of the remaining objects in the photograph may not be obtained.